NBA suspends ref for incident

The NBA announced Thursday that referee Joe DeRosa will be suspended one game following an incident with a fan in Orlando during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. DeRosa, a longtime official and crew chief, will miss the next game he was scheduled to work.

The incident occurred at halftime when DeRosa walked to the scorer’s table with fellow refs Marc Davis and Bill Kennedy. Several Orlando fans were getting on the officials, including Wyndham Vacation Ownership CEO Franz Hanning, who walked up to the table to yell at DeRosa. The ref responded by tossing the game ball to Hanning, who tossed it back.

The NBA said that Hanning was not ejected from the game, as had been reported. Hanning is a friend of Doc Rivers from the coach’s time with the Magic.

After the game, Rivers said this about DeRosa: “Joe, no, he’s not an emotional guy. He’s usually great in these situations, [but] I don’t know what happened.”